A Tiger Walks In
"Well, well. In the middle of breakfast, were we? My apologies."
"Oh, Mr. Alta! It's been ages!"
The one who strode into the house without so much as a knock was none other than a tiger walking on two legs. Judging by how his head nearly brushed the ceiling, he stood close to three meters tall.
He wore clothes draped over his frame like a person, and his unnaturally long, lanky limbs set him apart from any ordinary tiger.
"Hmm. Heard you ran into trouble out hunting. What did I tell you about being careful when you go off on your own?"
"We didn't even go near their territory! What were we supposed to do when those snow boars came charging out of nowhere!?"
"That's exactly the kind of thing you're supposed to watch out for. Where's Gunter?"
"Dad's still sleeping. He drank an awful lot last night."
The voice was gruff, yet carried the weight of an experienced man. The tiger called Alta had a low rumbling growl threaded through his speech, but Sophia chattered away at him without a trace of fear, their exchange utterly routine.
"Tch. Can't hold his liquor and still drinks like that... Anyway, so these are the outsiders."
"...Pleased to meet you."
The moment the tiger drew near, goosebumps erupted from my toes and spread across my entire body.
An astronomical concentration of psychic energy. My Beast's Senses, more sharply attuned than ever before, were screaming at me that this man stood on an entirely different plane of strength than I did.
Wait, wasn't this supposed to be a backwater village?
Why was someone like—well, someone like this—
"Hmm? Something's off about you..."
Alta paused mid-handshake and tilted his head. He prodded at my hand, evidently puzzled, then leaned in and gave it a sniff.
"You. You've got beastfolk in your ancestry somewhere, don't you? Tiger-kin, specifically."
"...Absolutely not."
"Have you been hitting the bottle this early too? Jun here is human through and through, no matter how you look at him."
"You met him five minutes ago and you're already calling him 'Oppa'... No, wait, that's the strange part—I really do get a familiar feeling from him. Almost like meeting someone of my own kind."
Alta spent a long while after that running his gaze over every inch of me, only relenting when Sophia started scolding him.
Still—someone of his own kind? I had no idea what he meant by that.
"Hm. This one's unusual too. Not a dwarf, yet there's an iron smell radiating off her. No calluses on those hands, so she's no smith either. Curious."
"Eek—! Mister! You can't just go around sniffing people like that! What are you, a pervert?"
"Blame the nose, not me."
Alta exchanged greetings with Noah as well, nose twitching all the while. My heart nearly stopped at the thought that her secret might slip out, but thanks to Sophia's scolding, he didn't press any further.
"Strange outsiders through and through. You don't seem like bad folk, though... In any case, come with me. If you want to stay in the village, you'll need to be inspected."
"Don't worry, it's nothing serious~"
"Haah... Just go eat something."
As we walked along the unpaved dirt road, Alta glanced back over his shoulder and fired off a question.
"What were you doing out on the snowfield?"
"It wasn't by choice. We got caught in an accident and stranded."
"Stranded, hmm. The only place anywhere near here where people live is this village. Where did you set out from?"
"..."
"Where are you from originally?"
"Well, that's..."
The uncomfortable questions kept coming, giving me no room to breathe. These weren't the kind you could deflect with a vague answer. Noah and I had no choice but to respond as evasively as we could, accepting the suspicion that came with it.
"Suspicious as hell."
"Ugh."
Once the interrogation tapered off, Alta leaned his face in close to mine.
I suppose that reaction was only natural?
"Two unidentified experts who can wield Mana, without a single shred of proof of identity... Very suspicious indeed."
"..."
"But I won't pry any further."
"?"
Alta raised his head and started walking again. His stride was as enormous as his frame, so we had to hustle just to keep up.
"In times like these, a man without a past or two is the rare thing. Me, for instance—my history isn't exactly spotless."
'That part, I believe completely.'
The man looked like he could pass for a Phantasm, honestly. I swallowed the words before they could escape my mouth.
"Here we are. This is the place."
Alta stopped in what appeared to be the heart of the village. Neatly built brick houses stood in a row, noticeably finer than the rest—clearly home to the village's better-off families. Of those, he led us to a quiet house with a garden.
"The fact that Sophia took a liking to you is proof enough you're not bad people. If you were just passing through, I'd have let it slide. But since you want to stay... we'll need something special."
"Something special?"
"Granny! Where are you?"
Alta drew a deep breath, puffed out his chest, and bellowed. His voice rolled through the house like thunder, reaching into every corner.
"You rascal! When will you drop that ridiculous habit of yours?"
"!"
Without so much as a footstep, a tiny old woman appeared right beside us. The faint points at the tips of her ears told me she wasn't entirely human either.
"Could you make a little noise when you move, ma'am? This is exactly why I can never find you."
"Heh heh... And this time without even pretending to search?"
"Couldn't be bothered."
His words were rough, but his bearing was oddly deferential. Alta bent nearly double at the waist to speak with a woman who didn't even reach his thigh—like some unruly grandson.
"As you can see... these are outsiders who've wandered into the village. Suspicious to the bone, the pair of them."
"And?"
"I know your health isn't what it was, but I need you to read their fortunes. My instincts say they're fine, but we should be certain. Faces like theirs—looking like they've come from somewhere important—it wouldn't be strange if they had pursuers on their tails."
Alta gently pushed our backs with his enormous palms, steering us toward the old woman. She then seized mine and Noah's hands with a peculiar, soundless motion.
"Hm? Your hands are cold as ice, child."
"I have poor circulation."
"Tsk tsk... I'll brew you some of my good tea later. When a woman's hands run cold, her womb suffers for it."
"Ah... yes."
Noah was visibly flustered by the old woman's characteristically blunt manner of speaking. This is why you have to pick your excuses carefully.
"Shall we take a look, then? Don't resist. It'll be over before you know it. Khekhek..."
The moment the old woman finished speaking, the wrinkled hands gripping ours began to glow.
Was this granny a Psycher too?
A very faint, gentle psychic energy flowed into me.
Shaaa...
"Mmm... something feels strange."
The energy streaming from the old woman flowed smoothly, penetrating deep into my body. Had anyone's psychic energy ever seeped this far into me before? It crept into places I would never ordinarily permit, stirring something close to shame.
Guuuung—
At last, the old woman's psychic energy claimed every last corner of my body and began to vibrate, as if resonating with something within.
My vision swayed.
'Sleepy.'
The resonant hum, modulating in steady cycles, lulled my consciousness down toward the very bottom of the subconscious like a hypnotist's pendulum. The old woman's psychic energy followed my sinking awareness, penetrating into regions I couldn't even perceive.
To think she'd inspect this thoroughly—this wasn't a fortune reading, it was a full-body examination...
'Wait. If this keeps up, Noah's secret could come out??'
I hadn't known divination worked this way, but even a purely physical inspection would make it obvious that Noah's body was mechanical. A being like Noah couldn't be common.
If...
'For now, stay still.'
I hesitated a moment, then looked at Alta, who was still watching us with a hard expression, and let my tension go. Even if we ran, we had nowhere to go—and besides, there wasn't a trace of hostility in the old woman's psychic energy.
It was simply clear and quiet, like a still lake.
I squirmed for a good while under that strange sensation, as if my very soul were being tickled.
"Mm-hm. Not a thing wrong with them."
The old woman's psychic energy receded like the tide. Apparently finding nothing amiss, she released our hands with the same placid expression as before. She said nothing about Noah's body, either.
"Truly?"
"Khekhek... No flaws in their character, and no pursuers attached either. If anything, I'd say their karma is suspiciously pristine... Did you two come from some deserted island, perchance?"
"What a relief."
At the old woman's unnervingly on-the-mark verdict, Alta's face broke into a wide grin. A tiger's face wearing a beaming smile was a sight beyond description—genuinely indescribable.
"Excellent! Outsiders... ah, Ha Jun, was it?"
"Yes."
"You've passed the granny's inspection, so by my authority, I grant you leave to stay in the village. In return, you'll help out a bit while you're here. I won't stand for freeloaders."
"That much... goes without saying."
I readily agreed to Alta's blunt demand for labor. We had no money to speak of, after all—we couldn't exactly eat for free and contribute nothing. It was only right to give back to the village.
"A fine attitude. I'll find you an empty house shortly. There should be at least one available, so don't worry."
"Thank you."
"Heh heh... Our manpower's grown. So much more we'll be able to do now."
Having said his piece, Alta muttered to himself and slipped out of the house in a flash. For all I knew, this granny's divination carried tremendous authority around here. For someone who'd been wary of us just moments ago to turn around like that...
"Tsk tsk... What will it take for that temper to mellow with age, I wonder? Seems you scored some points, though. It's been a long, long time since I've seen that boy move with such purpose."
"Really? I haven't noticed anything of the sort."
Grrrumble—
"Oh my. Sounds like you're hungry. That rascal Alta raised such a ruckus you probably couldn't even finish breakfast. Come along, then."
Truly razor-sharp insight. Having caught everything from her seat, the old woman clicked her tongue a few times and led us inside the house.
"There's nothing fancy, but eat your fill."
"Thank you for the meal!"
Wonderfully enough, the old woman had cooked for us. A warm stew with chunks of meat and vegetables bobbing on the surface. True, it was clearly part of something already made—but even so, we were grateful.
Gulp.
The thick, hearty broth, loaded with ingredients, warmed my empty stomach through. Seeing me wolf down the stew, the old woman apparently got some idea into her head and turned to chide Noah.
"Child, you'd best practice your cooking. A woman's worth is measured in her kitchen first of all, eh?"
"..."
"Though I suppose it's a bit difficult when you can't taste anything?"
"...!"
Kheck—
The old woman's careless remark made me choke mid-swallow. This granny—she really had seen through Noah!
"You noticed."
"Ho ho... How could I not?"
Where I floundered at the old woman's direct hit, Noah responded with perfect composure. Fair enough—if anyone were going to catch on, it would have made more sense to say something while Alta, a combat asset, was still in the house. The fact that she'd waited until now to bring it up suggested she meant us no harm.
"An automaton? Or a magic golem? Either way, I've never seen an artificial body engineered to such a degree of precision. And with such a firm sense of self, at that? The old fossils of the Imperial Capital would turn green with envy if they saw you. Heh heh..."
"...Neither. What is it you actually want?"
"Who's the young one here, rushing like that... Tsk tsk. No appreciation for the pleasures of conversation."
Clicking her tongue, the old woman creased her wrinkled face into an even deeper smile and ladled more food into my bowl. The conversation lapsed for a spell as a result.
Only after leisurely sipping a cup of warm tea did the old woman finally speak.
"Had I been a few decades younger, I'd have been bursting with questions... but as you've no doubt gathered, I have no intention of doing you harm."
"That's impossible to know, isn't it? For all we can tell, something could have been slipped into the food."
"Such a suspicious child."
Clink.
Noah's icy retort. I silently set down my spoon.
Hmm, doesn't seem to be any poison in it... But it still feels uneasy, so I'll finish eating once the conversation's over.
"In any case, the reason I've gone to the trouble of arranging this little meeting... is that I'd like to propose a contract to you both."
"A... contract?"
I tilted my head at the old woman's inscrutable words.